Thursday, May 17, 2007

Up to my usual top performances...

So Full Tilt Online Poker Series IV, otherwise known as FTOPS, is now a week old and tonight was the 7th event event. I've played 6 events so far, taking Tuesday off which was the HOSE event. So far I'm o-6 in cashing, not even coming close to sniffing the money. Of the 6 events, the only one that even started well was the Pot-Limit Omaha with rebuys. I ended the rebuy hour with about 17k in chips, but hour #2 went similar to my entire FTOPS series so far, and I didn't even make the 2nd break. For the most part, every event I have played has started the same way, with me losing 1/2 my chips very early and me having to scrape back to my original stack, a strategy that doesn't work very well for the most part.

Tonight's event was more of the same. 200+16 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo, which got 930 entrants, and I finished in 808th place, about 45 minutes into the thing. This event is probably my weakest of the events I will play in this series, so I really wasn't that disappointed. Overall though, I am very disappointed in my performances in the biggest tournaments on the net, specifically these special 10-day series and the Sunday majors. My single largest cash online was for about 70k when I took 3rd place in the party poker 750k Sunday tournament. I also won the Paradise Sunday twice, and the Paradise Masters series Pot-Limit Omaha tournament, all three scores were between 30k-35k, and I took 5th in 200+15 tournament on Ultimate Bet during their most recent championship series last December. The Ultimate Bet tournament I went into the final table as the chip leader, and in my defense, ran absolutely horrible and finished 5th for about 14k, which is nothing to exactly sniff at. I've won numerous 100 rebuys on pokerstars, but never gotten it done in the big one they have on Sundays, or in the 200 rebuy that also runs on Sundays.

In short, I feel like I'm a major disaster in the majors, and it is time I change that. I'm not sure how to go about doing it as far as maybe changing my strategy, but the next few months I plan on breaking through in these majors, which will have to start with me being 100% focused. I plan to keep my tables at a maximum of 8, where as in the past I have played up to 14 games on 2 monitors. There are 3 events left in this FTOPS series, all of which I feel fit my game well. Friday night is the Pot-Limit Hold'em, which means early we are forced to play more flops, which means players with greater post-flop skills will certainly have a distinct advantage. Saturday is the 100 rebuy, which of course are my favorite tournaments online. During FTOPS III, they had a 200 rebuy which Imper1um won. I had alot of chips and spewed them on the money bubble and barely squeaked into the cash myself. I hope I get a great table draw on Saturday, because I don't want to be the only one spending alot of money. Regardless, I plan on amassing a huge stack in the 1st hour, and will be highly disappointed if I don't go deep. Finally, Sunday is the main event, with the greatest structured online tournament there is. It wouldn't suprise me if 1st place surpassed 300k, and I plan to be right there in the thick of things fighting for my peice of the pie. I also cashed in the last main event, when in the SB my 88 ran into the BB's AA.

Hopefully I'll decorate this blog in the very near future, I am really new to all of this. In closing, although I am happy for them, I'm sick of just watching my friends deep in the biggest tournaments, time for me to join them.